Every dedicated gamer hits a slump. A point where the fun factor drops, the tedium grows, and interests shift to other outlets. Perhaps it’s the current crop of games — not an unreasonable claim, as the summer is the slow season — but I think I’m experiencing that slump.

There is nothing truly captivating out there. Nothing that warrants more than a passing glance.

Devil May Cry 3, er… I mean, Ninja Gaiden was played for about an hour before being tossed aside in a fit of rage inspired by the absolutely horrid camera engine. Halo bored me to depths I haven’t seen since, well, Final Fantasy XI. Rallisport Challenge 2 is sitting on the shelf, still shrink-wrapped. The last thing I did in Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was defeat Revolver Ocelot… by standing still in first person mode, shooting him repeatedly. Not surprisingly, that was also the last time I touched the GameCube.

I did play a bit of the Mega Mans and I dusted off some of the Genesis games that I have acquired in the last few months, but even those were brief. I’m just not interested.

A break is needed.

And the timing for such a break couldn’t have been better: I’m starting a new job for the rest of the summer this Monday. Hooray.

I know what you mean. Aside from acquainting myself with a PS2 DDR and playing a bit of Rez lately, I’m positively bored, bored, bored with gaming. I also find myself uncharacteristically dispirited about the year’s upcoming releases, the presumed heavy hitters most of all. Granted, not all of it’s due to simple fatigue…I hit upon a moral quandry about the whole thing a while ago as well, which I might write about at length later….

I feel your pain. I’ve been in a slump for the past 6 months or so. The only time I play is when it’s multiplayer Halo. Any one player games have lost their appeal. I think a lot of gamers are holding out for the next set of games (Halo 2, HL2, WoW, etc) or for the next systems before they invest more money into their libraries. That seems to be the general feeling anyway.

I also here of people getting addicted to City of Heroes (that’s why I’m staying away from it) and other MMORPGS. Perhaps the Console days are being numbered – studies in Japan have already found a decrease in console gamers. The west might be starting to experience something similar.

It’s funny. I’m noticing more and more gamers posting the same thing over the past year or two as well. When I started feeling this way, I just assumed it was because I was getting older and wasn’t interested in games as much. Now I’m not so sure. I’m still very interested in games but I’m looking for “something more”. I’m wondering if this is the gaming community as a whole. Many of us have “been there” and “done that”. Personally, I’m looking for a game that has a lot more depth to it now. Mindless shoot em up are fun for a bit but unless it has a back story with a purpose to it (and even better some persistence in its game universe), I get pretty tired of it quite quickly.